If this/these will be your only cards, perhaps buy what's cheapest. As for reliability, I really don't think there is much of a problem with either, so long as you stick with established brands, and buy from reputable sellers.

My kit consists of 4 32GB 1000x, 3 16GB 400x, and an 8GB 400x. With my 7D, each 32GB allows me to take about 1,200 RAWs, or over 5,000 JPEGs (something I rarely do), for a potential total of almost 7,000 RAW images. I shoot wildlife, and it's often that I shoot 8FPS bursts, particularly with small, fast-moving subjects. In a day's shooting, I can fill a 32GB with RAWs, and come close to filling another.

I just wanted to get people's opinions on which is better: getting 1 x 32gb memory cards vs 2 x 16gb memory cards?

These cards are compact flash and there about $90 in price difference.

As others said the answer depends on your shooting style. If you shoot mostly landscape and other more static compositions, 2 x 16 gb will do it perfectly. If you shoot weddings or a lot of action (sports, wildlife), a 32 gb is minimum IMO. If you shoot action, the speed of the card is an important factor to be considered, too. Shooting RAW, my 5D3 loaded with a SanDisk 32 GB 60MB/s slows after a burst of only 13 images, with Lexar Pro 1000x (32 GB) it gets more the 30 images before slowing down (I do not need that speed often, but sometimes when birding). But the Lexar is a sort of Lexus, it requires a lot of bucks for its bang . Like others, I never lost a CF and SD card so far, and I shoot sometimes in quite rugged areas (wildlife) where I do exchange cards.

So the answer really depends on the way you work. Hope this helps you.

I honestly don't think I could have shot a wedding without a 32gb card in the two bodies I had on the day.Thanks for your feedback

Some time ago I was taking sunset shots of Ogmore Castle (in South Wales). While were waiting for the perfect light I was chatting to a fellow photographer about the merits/pitfalls of larger capacity cards (8GB was pretty big at the time). We were discussing the pros/cons when his card was full, so he had to change it. I should say that he was standing waist deep in the river to get a better angle on the Castle at the time. The timing was perfect, the Golden moment of light had arrived and he was changing cards as his (small) card was full he dropped it! With my (then) large 8GB card I just kept shooting while he went diving for his card. The net result was that he lost his card and missed the best light - though he did have the bonus of a swim in February! I should say that I just managed not to fall about laughing as he had just completed his tirade against large capacity cards when this happened.The moral is get a card that has a bit more capacity than you need + a smaller card in reserve - Just in Case.

How many images do you need to capture in a session/day/whatever? Personally, with cameras that have a single card slot, I have two equal-sized cards, when one is full I swap them, transfer the images to the computer, and leave them on the second card until they're backed up from the computer. That means have two copies of each image from the time I first transfer them. I format each card when it goes back in the camera. That way, I also have an emergency extra card.

So, if 16 GB covers a shooting period, IMO 2 x 16 GB is better.

Ditto. For most cameras, (not including video) 16GB is sufficient for a typical day. If anything goes wrong and you have shot enough to be on the 2nd card, you won't lose ALL of your pictures from the calamity. Tragedies include camera theft of loss, card corruption, accidental issues or whatever could possibly kill your card and its contents. I always try to use multiple cards if possible for longer trips or larger shoots. Think one per day or two per wedding, etc. Better to have a few pictures survive on one card than none at all!

And then there is also the process nuero discusses. Have enough cards to be able to leave pictures on them a while in case something happens to them on your computer. Unless your pictures aren't important to you, cards are much cheaper than lost pictures. If the pictures aren't important enough to value more than the cost of a few memory cards, then just buy a point and shoot, stick a 32GB card in it and fill it up over a year or two and hope for the best. Which is exactly what I see often as an IT guy, people that come to me with a corrupted SD card in their camera hoping I can somehow perform a miracle on 2 years of pictures they never got around to offloading onto their computer, which itself hasn't ever been backed up either!

Ditto. For most cameras, (not including video) 16GB is sufficient for a typical day....

True for you Rusty! But ask a dozen different photographers what a typical (busy) day is and you'll likely get a dozen completely different responses, all the way from a 4Gb card lasting all day with room to spare, to days that I sometimes have where a 16Gb card will be filled in the first hour or so. It depends on the project.

Whatever your particular usage patterns are, just leave plenty of headroom. It's insurance. If I anticipate the potential for a 50Gb+ day, then I'll be packing 100Gb+ of CF cards. It's not a nice feeling running low and having to reluctantly trim your shooting, switch to mRAW or even switch to (errrrgh ...) JPEG.

I have both. 2 16gb cards and a 32gb. I find when I go out shooting for the day I fill the 16 more often than not. The 32gb cards are getting cheaper and more reliable. My wife has 2 64gb cards in her D7000 and that is totally overkill. She doesn't think so but it mainly comes down to how much you trust your cards. Full 32 and 64gb cards are a lot of photos to lose if they fail. More people choose to keep fewer pics on more cards just in case one fails.

I think we all take an acceptable risk using digital cameras and related equipment and things can and do happen. I have had Lexar cards fail but so far no Sandisk problems but I'm sure they have had their share of problems as well.

D

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Canon 6D, 5D2, 7Dv2.03, 50D, 40D, T1i, XTi...XT (& lenses, flahses), various powershots... You get the idea... I have a problem.

Wife shoots Nikon, D7000, D7100, (lenses and flashes)... we constantly tease each other that our cameras are better than each others!

in general - chose the memory-device you use so, that it can take that volume of data you produce during a half day, then change to the next medium. I maximally use 16 GB cards this time. Using good pro brands reduce the risk of data loss additionally. I expect 32GB and 64 GB to be safe today, but for me this would mean to risk the results of more than a day when a card fails. Dividing up the data of improtant shootings on more than one volume is a good strategy. The incovenience of changing the memory-element is unimportant compared with the risk of loosing data. Therefore I store the data from the cam as often as possible on a laptops harddisk and copy it instantanously on a second hard disk.

Wedding Photographer here. I don't like removing cards on a shoot. I load each camera (5DIII) with a pair of 64 Gig cards. I write raw files to both cards. I can shoot all day without the need to change cards or batteries. I don't even think about either any more. Day before a wedding, I wipe down each camera, recharge batteries and format the cards. While at the wedding I never remove or format cards.

So my advice would be similar to others in that you should look at what a normal days Imaging is going too be, then get 2 Cards. I'de suggest a minimum of 2 x 32GB Sandisk CF Cards.

You might then look down the track at getting a Camera Body that has built in back up, i.e.. 2 Cards, I can't imagine going on a trip to say Africa with a Camera that has only a single Memory Card.

Unlike some, I've had a couple of bad experiences with CF Cards, in particular Lexar 128GB Cards, I purchased 4 of these about 18 Months ago, had one dead on arrival, another corrupted after a full days shoot in Botswana, around 1500 Images on the Lexar lost (I did eventually save about 70% of the Images with "San Disk Rescue Pro", a great piece of software.

What that experience taught me was to always set up my Cameras so I have both Cards saving at the same time (so I have 2 copies of everything I shoot, hence the requirement in my case for 2 x 128GB Cards), this is fine on the 1Dx as they are both CF Cards, the 5DMK III you run intro the issue of the Canon Software built in bottle neck of the SD Card, ridiculous software limitation still not fixed by Canon (Nikon doesn't have this issue where they use a mix of CF/SD Cards) on the 5DMK III the write speed of the Cards is governed by the speed of the SD card & Canon's limitation on SD write speed.

Another heads up on Memory Cards is the recent release of OSX 10.9 Mavericks, I have 3 Card readers, the Sandisk CF Card reader (works fine still), the Lexar HR1 Hub Reader (reads up to 4 cards at once in a stacked hub) works fine still, and an older Lexar Card reader that reads a CF card & SD card in a pop up head, this reader no longer works under OSX 10.9.

I hope this helps, my experience with Lexar CF Cards doesn't appear to be widespread, but I no longer buy Lexar Cards, I stick now to 128GB Sandisk CF & SD Cards.

« Last Edit: March 01, 2014, 07:32:10 PM by eml58 »

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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

This is a good discussion to prompt thinking things through. I agree pretty much with those here who say losing or dropping a card while changing during the action is more of a risk than a card failure. I heard this first at a workshop given by Arthur Morris (wildlife photographer).

On the other hand, if some particularly priceless moment has just been captured, and I have a quiet pause in the action, I might put the card with those images in a hard case and put another card in the camera for the rest of the shoot...But not if I were standing in a stream!

In any event, you have to carry spares.

As for brands, I've been shooting Transcends for two years without any problems, and on my 5D3, they are as fast as I need--because if I am in an important situation, I'm using the SD slot too, which then becomes the limiting factor for speed.

It's all down to personal preferences and your workflow. I have mostly 32Gb cards (2 are Sandisk Extreme Pro and one Transcend - which doesn't work with my CF reader). They allow me to shoot over 1000 RAW images in a day. For weddings, and other events I don't want to be fumbling about with cards. However I also have one 16Gb Sandisk Extreme Pro CF card that I bought first when starting out with CF cards (damn they were expensive!). It gets used now as a back up or ready to shoot card while the others are full and uploading to the PC. The 16Gb is a good size too, gives me just over 500 shots. I could make do with a bunch of 16s but I prefer to keep things simple.

There is always the risk of a card failure but also a risk of just straight up losing / misplacing a card. At my friends wedding the second shooter lost an SD card. All pics lost. Frequently swapping out cards could potentially lead to losing one. I prefer to just have one in camera all times. I upload and back up as soon as possible. Safest place for a card is in your camera - unless you format it by accident! That was my greatest fear when shooting my first wedding!